False rape accusers should not be punished, and women are the real victims of false claims

17-year-old New Zealand girl was arrested this week after falsely claiming that she was dragged off by three youths and sexually assaulted at knifepoint, The Rotorua Daily Post reported. (“Calls for help, not charges,” January 8, 2009.) The news report explained that this was the second alleged false sexual assault claim local police have dealt with since November.

The article quotes Dr. Kim McGregor, director of New Zealand’s Rape Prevention Education, who spoke about false rape complainants: “I would recommend some form of therapeutic intervention rather than charging them.” Dr. McGregor claims that “someone needed to be ‘pretty distressed’ to make a false allegation of sexual assault,” and that “very few women made false complaints as a form of revenge.” This claim runs counter to Professor Eugene Kanin’s landmark study of rape claims in a mid-size Midwestern city over the course of nine years, in which he found that 27% of the false rape claims were motivated by revenge. Read the rest of my article at Glenn Sacks' blog